[paul]

Could someone please explain the difference(if any) between Plex and xbmc for mac.
as i am considering buying a mac mini using the intel chip running snowleopard
any advice would be helpfull. and sorry if this is posted in the wron spot

[smcnally75]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe when the team that was working on the XBMC port for mac got together they changed the name to Plex.

[paul]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe when the team that was working on the XBMC port for mac got together they changed the name to Plex.

So does that mean both versions look identical? Or have they rebadged it etc

[paul]

I heard there was some coders left XBMC to start plex whether
this is true am not too sure and i aint going to ask on there forum as they react
in a similar way to Linux users ( oops will get a telling off for that )

[Jeroen]

Plex is a fork of XBMC for OSX.

A group of developers within Team-XBMC were working on the OSX version of XBMC. Differences in opinion in several areas resulted in a fork of XBMC for OSX which was later renamed to Plex.

[Clumsy]

Best bet you check their page, good place is elans blog: http://elan.plexapp.com/

To sum it up: some features that are not in XBMC and most probably will never be because they are not multi-platform but Mac specific. They focus alot on better integration with OSX but since I have no MAC I can't tell you specifics One thing that did sound interesting is the new audio core they used that is supposed to be better.
See this blogpost for info: http://elan.plexapp.com/2008/11/11/plexs...ut-module/

There are also some new gimmicky features: for example when you enter your tv shows it automatically streams mp3 samples from the tv show theme from their homepage (legality being questionable here). They also integrated some itunes visualizations (those are actually quite nice, so that could be an added bonus).

Take all of this info with a grain of salt though as I don't own/use a mac and just look at their blog out of interest from time to time. And if you decide to use plex, please don't ask for support in the forums here - that will most definately get you some not so nice remarks from the devs

[paul]

Best bet you check their page, good place is elans blog: http://elan.plexapp.com/

To sum it up: some features that are not in XBMC and most probably will never be because they are not multi-platform but Mac specific. They focus alot on better integration with OSX but since I have no MAC I can't tell you specifics One thing that did sound interesting is the new audio core they used that is supposed to be better.
See this blogpost for info: http://elan.plexapp.com/2008/11/11/plexs...ut-module/

There are also some new gimmicky features: for example when you enter your tv shows it automatically streams mp3 samples from the tv show theme from their homepage (legality being questionable here). They also integrated some itunes visualizations (those are actually quite nice, so that could be an added bonus).

Take all of this info with a grain of salt though as I don't own/use a mac and just look at their blog out of interest from time to time. And if you decide to use plex, please don't ask for support in the forums here - that will most definately get you some not so nice remarks from the devs

Thanks for the info.
When i do replace my current pc for a mac i will use XBMC for mac and NOT PLEX as i prefer to remain loyal to XBMC

[bmfrosty]

Thanks for the info.
When i do replace my current pc for a mac i will use XBMC for mac and NOT PLEX as i prefer to remain loyal to XBMC

Not to bring up XBMC's competitors on XBMC's forum - you already did - but if you pick up a Mini for a media center application, it would be smart to check out the different software options out there.

[Keane16]

I use both XBMC (on an Xbox) and Plex on my iMac. So no favouritism on which team to back, loyalty etc. They are 2 pieces of software at the end of the day, one of which used the other as a base to build from. I've used XBMC for around 3 years and Plex about 6 months.

If you get a Mac use i'd suggest using Plex, as the 2 pieces of software currently stand - and also in the future barring a big mess up from the Devs of Plex.

Obviously as bmfrosty says, try everything and pick the one which you find most useful.

My reasons for Plex over XBMC on a Mac (probably missing a few!)...

• Proper sleep functionality.
  
• Built in updating. If you are going to use the Mac Mini as only a HTPC this is extra useful as you can update Plex from within itself, so no need for a keyboard or mouse jut use your remote.
  
• Slightly better iTunes integration, as Plex allows you to playback DRM'd music you have bought from iTunes. Also integration with iPhoto (XBMC can do this too) and Aperture with Lightroom and others to follow.
  
• Jingles/Themes to TV shows, gimmicky, but a nice touch.
  
• As bmfrosty says, there is tighter integration into OS X - Things like OS X keyboard shortcuts as standard, and laptop battery monitoring from within the app - alerting you when you have low battery. Hopefully more nice Mac based features in the future.
  
• Ability to launch other Apps from within Plex - Like frontrow, so if you you do have a DRM'd video from iTunes you can play it back without getting off the couch.
  
• As they only support OS X the Devs have the freedom to cut the fat from the code (like eliminating old Xbox stuff that is no longer required) and it also allows them to trim the number settings options required as there are less hardware bases to cover. Which makes for a nicer user experience.
  
• If you can make use of it the CoreAudio stuff is very nice.
  
• Feature requests, as the Devs only need to focus on the one operating system, there's more chance a platform specific feature will be added. For example someone suggested removing the region settings from within Plex and take the reading from OS X instead, makes sense, and I think it will be added. But this would be hard for the XBMC Devs to do as the have so many platforms to support, and it's a feature which just cannot be implemented on the Xbox.
  

If this post was made 2 months ago you could have picked either Plex or XBMC for your Mini and there wouldn't have been much noticeable difference. But now with the release of the Plex/Seven series they are starting to offer different features. By the time you get a Mac there will be even more to seperate the 2 projects.

As I and others say though try them both and see which you like best.

[paul]

I use both XBMC (on an Xbox) and Plex on my iMac. So no favouritism on which team to back, loyalty etc. They are 2 pieces of software at the end of the day, one of which used the other as a base to build from. I've used XBMC for around 3 years and Plex about 6 months.

If you get a Mac use i'd suggest using Plex, as the 2 pieces of software currently stand - and also in the future barring a big mess up from the Devs of Plex.

Obviously as bmfrosty says, try everything and pick the one which you find most useful.

My reasons for Plex over XBMC on a Mac (probably missing a few!)...
Thanks for the friendly advice you have all given me a lot to think about, and i will try out both when i finally get a mac mini. i wont be mentioning the word Plex on this forum from now on as i really don't want to upset the developers any more than i have to

• Proper sleep functionality.
  
• Built in updating. If you are going to use the Mac Mini as only a HTPC this is extra useful as you can update Plex from within itself, so no need for a keyboard or mouse jut use your remote.
  
• Slightly better iTunes integration, as Plex allows you to playback DRM'd music you have bought from iTunes. Also integration with iPhoto (XBMC can do this too) and Aperture with Lightroom and others to follow.
  
• Jingles/Themes to TV shows, gimmicky, but a nice touch.
  
• As bmfrosty says, there is tighter integration into OS X - Things like OS X keyboard shortcuts as standard, and laptop battery monitoring from within the app - alerting you when you have low battery. Hopefully more nice Mac based features in the future.
  
• Ability to launch other Apps from within Plex - Like frontrow, so if you you do have a DRM'd video from iTunes you can play it back without getting off the couch.
  
• As they only support OS X the Devs have the freedom to cut the fat from the code (like eliminating old Xbox stuff that is no longer required) and it also allows them to trim the number settings options required as there are less hardware bases to cover. Which makes for a nicer user experience.
  
• If you can make use of it the CoreAudio stuff is very nice.
  
• Feature requests, as the Devs only need to focus on the one operating system, there's more chance a platform specific feature will be added. For example someone suggested removing the region settings from within Plex and take the reading from OS X instead, makes sense, and I think it will be added. But this would be hard for the XBMC Devs to do as the have so many platforms to support, and it's a feature which just cannot be implemented on the Xbox.
  

If this post was made 2 months ago you could have picked either Plex or XBMC for your Mini and there wouldn't have been much noticeable difference. But now with the release of the Plex/Seven series they are starting to offer different features. By the time you get a Mac there will be even more to seperate the 2 projects.

As I and others say though try them both and see which you like best.

Thanks and sorry if i have upset any developers for the use of the word Plex
it's not my intention to offend anyone on this forum....

[jlslatton]

Not to bring up an old thread but:

The breaking point for me and the plex was the lack of support plex has for 10.4. Until I breakdown and buy a new mini or upgrade to 10.5, XBMC is the only option for me.

[bartdesign]

I'm a user of both forks(xbmc and plex).

Since they released the new plex 0.7 I became very disappointed. The plex team figures that there are too much options in the settings panels. So they removed a lot of them, and a lot of those options i used to configure plex to my liking.

Now i have to edit the advancedsettings.xml, and leaves me thinking "is this evolution?" It feels the other way. This decreases the usability a lot IMHO. There are a couple of other examples where Plex is breaking from standard XBMC builds, and it's not the route i want to travel. I rather have one media center that is standardized on all my platforms.

I reverted all my OSX installations to XBMC for Mac.

[gianpy69]

I used Plex on my Mac mini Intel Core2 Duo 1.8Mhz but i'm stopped and i'm going to use xbmc because Plex lack in support analog multichannel audio.
I use a Miglia Harmony Firewire sound card with 7.1 multichannel capability and it works well in xbmc while i must downmix to stereo to use it in Plex.
Keep in mind this when you have to choice.

Gianpy69